The story from both the book and movie is about a newspaper reporter named Irwin Fletcher who is an investigative reporter who writes under the name Jane Doe. While writing stories on the drug trade he meets up with a man named Alan Stanwyck who asks Fletch to kill him in order to provide money for his family.

The rest of the story in the film varies slightly from the book but still centres on Fletch's ability to have fake ID and fake costumes in order to get information.

There was a sequel four years later called Fletch Lives which starred Chase and ex-Mrs. Springsteen Julianne Phillips. It wasn't directly related to any of McDonald's novels and did not have the same appeal as the original.

Braff himself lends credence to this on his own website where he talks about this news. As he says about the original Fletch movie, "For those of you who've never seen it, go check out Chevy Chase in "Fletch". It is a classic; you will laugh till your nipples chafe against your shirt."